Barclays reacts to customer feedback

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Barclays Bank has announced it will be reviewing all overdraft charges and fees following customer feedback received through its Your Bank initiative.

Barclays launched Your Bank in an attempt to gather customer insight into how it can make everyday banking easier.

The bank said feedback showed that customers wanted to be able to understand the fees and charges associated with its overdrafts, moving it to launch a formal review into them.

It also said that its new service that sends text alerts warning customers that they have exceeded their overdraft limit has already helped 65,000 customers avoid charges, totalling £1.4 million.

Other changes include:

The bank will be piloting a new scheme that will see coin machines set up in branches, allowing customers to have their coins automatically counted and then credited to their bank accounts.

Its Pingit mobile banking app that lets customers send and receive money by using only their mobile phone numbers will be extended to those under 16.

Customers will now also be able to set up new payees through mobile phone banking.

Mortgage customers will be able to access their mortgage details through mobile banking.

Tarnished reputation

The bank has found itself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons over the last year.

In June 2012, Barclays was found guilty of attempting to manipulate the inter-bank lending rate, known as Libor, resulting in a £290 million fine and the resignation of its group chief executive Bob Diamond.

Meanwhile, the latest figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is the independent body that settles disputes between banks and customers, reveal that the bank was the third most complained about financial institution in the first six months of this year.

And only last week, Barclays revealed that due to 'technical errors' on personal loan paperwork, up to 300,000 of its customers will be in line to be refunded all of the interest they have paid on affected loan products.